What is going on at Symantec???????

[TerryT]

No more Direct Assist, no more cases by email, and the hold times on the tech support phone line are often over 2 hours(I waited 150 minutes before giving up last Monday).  To top it off, you may or may not get someone that speaks understandable English.

This is very unsettling, since a large # of issues with backup exec are not addressed in the knowledge base.  I'm really starting to wonder if I can afford to keep myself in this precarious spot with a tape backup platform that I have ABSOLUTELY NO WAY to get ahold of a tech in a reasonable timeframe if there was an emergency.

What is going on???????

Message Edited by TerryT on 05-21-200703:38 PM

[Joaquin]

I am glad you mentioned this, and that at the very least, Symantec has provided this service.   I doubt the technical support agents are certified in Microsoft product or Symantec products.  Their support is less than horrible.  And you have to wait for support for 2 to 4 hours on hold.

Either they have tried to cut back on support services to reduce costs, or they are being overloaded with support calls due to poor quality in the product once it was released.  I am thinking this is a little of both. 

Anyhow, I think that I am going to approve the investigation of alternative backup products.

[Dennis_Thornton]

It's almost as if they're trying to kill the product.

1.  Release a new version with an immense number of bugs.

2.  Change the licensing program at the same time the new version is released.  Make it insanely complicated and frustrating for users to get their paid for updates.

3.  Outsource most of the support.  Allow the outsource vendor to use poeple that are technically limited and have strong accents.

4.  Drop the support portal so the only support available is by phone.

5.  Cut back on support staff so that customers have to wait hours to get through.

6.  Hey, ythey can always get support on this forum! 

7.  Use some 1960s design software for the forum so that users have to log in every time they come to the forum and make it so stupid it doesn't even redirect them back to the forum they tried to log on from.

Hmm.  I couldn't have come up with a better way to eliminate customers.

[Rich_Lichvar]

I, too, have experienced these same frustrations with Symantec's support for Backup Exec. In fact, I've gotten more support for Backup Exec out of the Dell Storage support group (we have one of those 124T LTO3 autoloaders) than out of Symantec. (The support I've gotten from that group within Dell has been absolutely excellent.)

We also will be looking for an alternative to Backup Exec.

[wilbert]

Here is an other frustrated user, the software came with the autoloader so I give it a try. I had some weird problems when I re-connected an old backup machine to the server. I finaly picked pieces of the solution out of this forum, it took me some frustrating days though and who likes to work in the weekend.

I have to say that when it is working I'm prety happy with BE,  I just hope it will continue working now.

Good luck to all of you.

Wilbert

[TerryT]

Here's a thought.....Maybe this is their way of saying that if your environment is that important to you, you'll pay the thousands of $$$$ to upgrade to the much pricier NetBackup product.

I wonder if those end users are being thrown down this same well.

[Hywel_Mallett]

Well I haven't needed to contact Symantec support for BE for quite a while (am I the only one?). I can tell you that the support for Storage Foundation and Veritas Cluster Server is top notch though! It's far more expensive than BE though...

[Scott_Burton]

{Please no personal attacks guys, lets keep it on topic. Thanks}

Message Edited by John_B on 05-31-2007 12:20 PM

[Tyfos]

Thank God, I'm not the only one with support problems. Well actually its a bit scary, because this proberly means I'll never get a solution. I knew I was in trouble when I called support. A scary accent, and the feeling that the "Technical Engineer" startet at top of a very bad checklist. With the first "solution" being "Try reinstalling".

My experience:

https://forums.symantec.com/syment/board/message?board.id=115&message.id=13535

[Dennis_Thornton]

{Please no personal attacks guys, lets keep it on topic. Thanks}

Message Edited by John_B on 05-31-2007 12:19 PM

[DY]

I've also become quite frustrated with the support I've received.  Every time something comes up with BackupExec, we essentially draw straws and whoever loses has to be the one to call.

I find them to be very impersonal and short with you, trying to get off the phone as quickly as possible.

Also, I've found that if it's not an emergency where a system is down, you have to wait for a call back that may never come, and if they do call and you miss it you're out of luck because they will never call back again.

Symantec, I really hope you look at this thread because it mirrors the concerns with a LOT of professionals I've spoken to at various conventions.  If support doesn't improve you're going to lose a lot of customers just due to word of mouth.

[Jack_Dorsey]

"Well I haven't needed to contact Symantec support for BE for quite a while (am I the only one?)."

Nope.  I wasn't an "early adopter" with 11(d), and had a perfectly stable BEX 10 environment running before I went to 11(d) for the encryption capabilities.  I did have some initial issues with compression and encryption, however I got what I thought was wonderful tech support from someone in North America with no accent at all and the solution was provided very quickly.

My system hasn't skipped a beat since we moved to 11(d).  I read the implementation guide, the upgrade install guide, the best practices guide, and who knows what other materials that Symantec provided to me when we upgraded.  I read them all BEFORE we upgraded.  I think that stands to reason why our system has been so stable, personally.

However, I know that there were plenty of bugs in the 11(d) release (anyone who frequents these boards knows something about GRT/Exchange issues) and for that, Symantec, I say shame on you for not testing your product before general release.

I don't use Exchange or the GRT functions, so take that as you will.  I'm overall happy with the new release (not to mention the increased backup speeds we got after the upgrade...our backups went from 550MB/min to 1300MB/min.).

There might seem to be a lot of issues on these boards, but please remember that the 50 or so people complaining about issues represent a very small amount of BEX 11(d) users, which amount to the tens of thousands in North America alone.

Cheers, Jack

[Gary_Leavelle]

The exhortation at the top of the reply form: "When writing your message, remember to keep the language clean."

With that exhortation I will refrain from using the words I'd really like to use to express my frustration with Symantec. I've used BEX for years (since 7.x), sold many customers on it as a consultant, and as director of IT for my company, have implemented and used it for the past 4 years.
Symantec's takeover of Veritas has been a disaster for Backup Exec, IMHO. Back in January, the new licensing model/portal took multiple calls and hours to straighten out. We're talking about a fifteen server farm with Exchange, SQL, Linux, IDR and all the associated agents. My brain must have blocked that experience out because when I got an offer on the new SRO as a part of the BEX package, I thought, "Great, I'll get it. Fits into my overall DR scenario." Well, we're currently waiting after 4 days to hear back from licensing support because "there's a problem".
The product, generally speaking, has been great. The issue is with a product like this, you need quality support. I made the investment in VIP support. I don't feel like I'm getting any return on my investment.

[navar_holmes]

Tech support is clueless.  I upgraded to rev 7170 and lost all of my Jobs, Policies and Selection lists on my media server.  Tech support poked around in the server for about an hour before giviing up and telling me that level two support be getting in touch with me.  Well no phone call yet and it has been over 24 hours.  While one the phone with clueless support tech, I kept saying that something is wrong with the CAS option.  After hanging up with clueless i figured out that is was the upgrade that messed up the CASO.  I was able to at least recover all of my lost Job, Policies and Selection list.  Important Note:  When doing an upgrade make sure that you backup the catalogs and database.  I found it better to stop all services and then copy the file to a different server.

Also the online knownledge base need lots of work.  What a nightmare trying to find info.

Still no call.

[Rick100]

Think that is bad, I had to make 7 calls, local support, license support, etc, & countless emails just to get my serial numbers for 11d. Only after I got really pissed & started using some, shall we say unkind language that a trucker would use if his 18 wheeler just got a flat, did I finally get some help, I wouldn't let the guy off the phone & asked for his supervisor. OH, by the way only took 5 months to get my serial numbers & I'm not kidding. Our service on 10d was out of service because we could not registar the new product. To top that, the service started at the time they cashed the check not the time I registared the product.

It didn't use to be like this "What the ##!# changed?".

[Jerry_Battaglia]

Wow, this is amazing. It's so nice to be among friends with a common bond! This move to 11d has been maddening for me as well and I've experienced most of what y'all have said. I have found that the best way to get someone quickly is to call around 6am and, of course, say that your case is critical. By the same token, I've gotten the best support from other users. I think it's very important that we come back and post our resolutions, no matter how simple they are. If you made a dumb mistake (like trying to push the remote agent to the 64 bit Exchange server), chances are someone else has done the same thing. If those of us who invested in 11d stick together and support one another, we can get through this and get the most out of our investment. Meanwhile we'll research other vendors and switch when the budget allows. If you're like me, you can't just dump this thing at this point.

I liked what you said about the forum being antiquated...I've always been annoyed by having to login every time I come back, then getting dumped back at the main menu and having to find my message again. I did eventually figure out how to sort the messages by last reply instead of last post, which should be the default.

Now, does anyone know if there is a support forum for Information Foundation Mail Security?

[Gary_Leavelle]

"There might seem to be a lot of issues on these boards, but please remember that the 50 or so people complaining about issues represent a very small amount of BEX 11(d) users, which amount to the tens of thousands in North America alone."

My intent is not to start a flame war, but there's no reason to think our experiences with tech support/licensing support is an isolated experience--more like the tip of the iceberg. My frustration level had to get pretty hight to go through the abuse to get registered for this forum and take the time to detail. Normally, I have better things to do.

Oh, yea. Still waiting on a response to the licensing SRO problem from license support. Their first solution was to email me license codes for 11d IDR. SRO takes a license file. Glad I ponied up the $2,758.21 for VIP support this year. It's paying off in spades.

[navar_holmes]

It sure would be nice to have a remember me check box when loging in.  I found another issue or should i call it a bug.  after upgrading to Rev 7170 you need to also upgrade all of your remote agents.  The server that had just the standard agent took the re-install which i pushed from the BE server.  The issue is with servers that have the AOFO installed also.  When pushing the re-install the server is not automaticlly rebooted you need to right-click the server name and select reboot.  In that is the issue, two of my failed to restart.  They shut down but get hung between the shut down and the post (server is now unavailable).  I had to push the power button to get the servers to restart.  If you don't do the right-click restart option and go to the server and do a start/restart, that worked OK for another.

[OptimusPrime]

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Dennis Thornton wrote:

{Please no personal attacks guys, lets keep it on topic. Thanks}

Message Edited by John_B on 05-31-2007 12:19 PM

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Guys lets keep it on topic and no personal attacks on people.

Thanks

[Dennis_Thornton]

What?  I didn't attack anyone nor did I infer anything (other than the support on BE has degraded since it was bought from Veritas).